Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Handcuff Strength - a lot!

How strong are handcuffs?

From the Smith & Wesson website (see? they don't just make guns!):

"Whether you prefer hinged or chained handcuffs (and many street-savvy officers carry one pair of each), the first thing to pay attention to is whether your cuffs meet NIJ Standard 0307.01. This standard specifies that each handcuff shall be able to withstand a tensile force of 495 lbf without failure. The tested handcuff shall not open under load, shall not show any sign of permanent distortion or fracture and shall function in a normal manner following the test. The standard also specifies that each handcuff shall withstand 204 lbf/in for cheek plate separation. A majority of cheap handcuffs on the market don't meet this standard. Is this important? Well, consider how strong the last really big guy you arrested was, or consider the superhuman strength of a PCP user. Any cop who's worked the streets for a while knows of a local incident in which someone did, in fact, break their cuffs. So, yes, it's important-and why gamble?"

And about the handcuffs that broke inside the Island Lake Police Department?

The ASP handcuff company says they test handcuffs to 1,000 lbs. Well, actually, what they told me is that they stopped the test at 1,000 lbs, when the handcuffs hadn't broken. Now you tell me; how does a man who is not a weight-lifter or a bodybuilder break handcuffs that withstand 1,000 lbs. of testing? Answer: he doesn't. The handcuffs were faulty.

The cop is just lucky, really lucky, that he hadn't wrestled a 350-lb. gorilla to the ground and put those handcuffs on him. All the cops in the County would probably be wearing black stripes across their badges, if he had.

My opinion about busting a driver for "breaking" $34.00 worth of handcuffs and calling it "Destruction of State Supported Property"? Officer Walter Szarowicz #258 needs more than "a little" retraining. He needs some strong "counseling" by Chief Sciarrone, along with close supervision until he understands what good police work is.

Should following a driver for 3-4 blocks and loading him up with 12 tickets and a bogus felony charge be grounds for termination?

Is this Ofc. Szarowicz's standard practice, to issue a dozen tickets every time he stops a driver? Is this Island Lake Police Department policy?

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I have heard of officers writing large amounts of tickets before. Most cops frown on that sort of thing. It usually happens with a certain demographic of the population. You know, the illegal immigrant demographic. I wonder what demographic this arrestee falls under. I'm guessing Ofc. Wally #258 thought he wouldn't hear from this arrestee again.